Trieste, Italy in route to Ljubljana, Slovenia

November 5, 2009

Chris, Jevin and Ashley

After missing or rather, after being mis-informed, about a train to Mestre, Italy (Venice) we got stuck having to pay an extra 17,40 Euro to ride the faster and more comfortable, First Class EuroStar. Once in Mestre and transferred on to another clunker for two hours we arrive in Trieste, the city where I spent my first three or four years before moving to serve in  Parma. We are met by Pastor Chris Scobie and taken to his car then shuttled on another hour to Ljubljana the capital city of two million person nation and former Yogoslavian – Titoesk state.

Can you imagine? There are only 1,000 evangelical believers in the entire country.

Chris explaining the difference between nationalism and patriotism

When we finally stop for coffee Chris attempts to explain to Jevin and Ashley the spiritual, social, political and historical dynamics of this complicated part of the world.

Now Serving with ACCI

Victor, Belkis and Sahara

Victor Chirico is originally from Argentina and married to Belkis Medina (from the Dominican Republic) pictured with their daughter, Sahara. I have just welcomed them this morning as colleagues in ACCI. 

ACCI is pleased to make this announcement and to serve and support them as they work in various international ministry projects.  

Parma, Italy

November 1, 2009

The gathering of more than one hundred

With a holiday tomorrow and so much going on in Milano - Luis Pulau - we knew that it might turn out to be a less attended service than others but to our surprise about one hundred thirty showed up and about twenty first time visitors, most of them Italian.

At my expressive best... rather weird, right?

I preached a similar message that I preached at Chapel Ridge in Canada, “Like Jumping to Capri.” The delivery was smooth with serious intention on the part of the listeners. At the end I made a clear presentation of the opportunity to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. I know of one who talked to me and I also have an appointment to meet a man named Johnny on Tuesday in the morning. All of the team here felt that the message went over well and the translation by Mariela on target.

The Cerasino Kitchen

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Corcagnano, Italy

Making southern fried chicken and mashed potatoes

Un uhh, they shor like my cookin’ roun’ y’her. I did American style hamburgers (even brought the buns from America) and french fries last week and today I made a Sunday extravaganza.

So now you know. I don’t just git taken care of by other folk.

Volunteers from NOM/TCBD, Youth with a Mission, and Oracle got up early Saturday morning for another Tenderloin tree planting. Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) were there with their tools and expertise, Hastings College of Law donated their loading dock as a staging area for the event — a real community effort! Team Oracle (who’s donation made this all possible) headed out first. We broke up into groups, got our on-site training and started planting.

Four hours later, San Francisco’s urban forest was 23 trees greener. After the outing, we all headed back to the community space at NOM/TCBD for lunch and some social time.

A big thank you to Oracle, and all of the volunteers that made this a great outing.  The young folks from Youth with a Mission really energized the event — what a great group!

I don’t have a piece of research to review for this week so instead I’ll briefly comment on a few homeschooling-related stories that have recently made the news or appeared in trade magazines.

First, there’s a great story in this week’s Sports Illustrated (28 September 2009) about Bonnie Richardson, who single-handedly won the class 1A Texas state track championship for her teeny school Rochelle High.     The story describes Bonnie’s “low-expectations town” where youth who don’t get pregnant as teens leave as soon as they can.  Yet Bonnie and her two sisters have all excelled.  Why?  Author Gary Smith explains,

Jack and Madelynn were determined to give Adele, Lee and Bonnie the same gift they’d grown up with–the great wide open–without conceding an inch of education or opportunity to suburban or city kids…. Mom homeschooled her three daughters during their early hears, having them run laps around the house for phys ed.  ‘We can say our phonics charts in our nightmares,’ says Lee. (p.62)

After homeschooling, Bonnie’s parents became very active in the local high school.  Her father served on the school board and her mother, acquiring a teaching certificate, taught all of the high school science classes.  Smith’s story goes on to tell in gripping detail about the childhood and athletic achievements of this remarkable young woman.

Next, there’s a horrible story posted on Sept. 9, 2009 at The Nation with the provocative title “The Nightmare of Christianity.”  Max Blumenthal provides here fascinating details about Matthew Murray, the 24 year-old who killed two Youth With A Mission (YWAM) staffers and then, thirteen hours later, killed two and injured two more at the famous New Life Community Church in Colorado Springs, before he was courageously taken down by undercover guard Jeanne Assam.

Blumenthal’s reportage gives us an intimate look at Murray’s pious upbringing and many disappointments, quoting at length from his internet postings and other writings.  We learn about his homeschooling and how he hated it.  According to Blumenthal, the Murrays used Bill Gothard’s authoritarian Basic Life Seminars and little else to teach him.  There are no government records on Murray past third grade, and it’s hard not to notice the almost sub-literate style Murray exhibits in his online postings.

We read of how Murray was forced by his mother to attend either YWAM’s “Discipleship Training School” or Oral Roberts University.  He chose YWAM but was kicked out of the program because of his incorrigible and anti-social attitude.  We learn of his anger at Ted Haggard, the infamous pastor of New Life Community Church who was at one time president of the National Association of Evangelicals and one of the country’s leading preachers before the scandal broke that he led an underground life paying for gay sex while taking crystal meth.

With this backstory in place Murray’s violence against the YWAM headquarters and New Life Church make sense.  Blumenthal summarizes:

All four of Murray’s victims were youthful, mostly home-schooled and extremely idealistic. They could have been his roommates at YWAM or could have joined him in a Christian youth fellowship. They seemed so much like him, at least on the surface. So did he single them out? Although there is no conclusive answer, Murray’s acknowledged grievances hint at his motives. Each of his victims represented to him the obedient, unquestioning religious automaton he was required to be but never could become. They had embarked on the exotic foreign missions he had been rejected for, discovering friendship and even (nonsexual) wholesome romance while he languished in his room–his “buried kennel.” The blithe everyday existence of these shiny, happy Jesus people was Murray’s “Christian nightmare.”

Blumenthal goes on to explain how many Christian sources have interpreted Murray’s actions as the logical consequence of listening to rock music, looking at pornography, or perhaps demonic possession.  The Murray parents are model conservative Christians, and in their Dobson interview they were at a loss to explain their son’s behavior.  Blaming Satan was about the best they could do.

But after all of this powerful reportage, Blumenthal tries to replace one simplistic and reductive interpretation of Murray’s actions with another.  It wasn’t Satan, says Blumenthal.  It was Conservative Christianity itself that produced this monster.  But blaming Christianity for Matthew Murray is no different than the frequent Christian strategy of blaming Atheism for the atrocities of the Soviet Union and other dictatorial regimes.  Most atheists are not Joseph Stalin, and most Christians are not Matthew Murray.

On a related note, there’s this horrific story that’s been in the news this week about a homeschooled girl, her friend, and both her parents all bludgeoned to death by a “horrorcore” rapper the family had brought home to Farmville, VA to stay with them after meeting at a horrorcore convention.  The murdered girls, both homeschooled, were described as dressing in the goth style and spending a lot of time on Myspace (their screen names were “Ragdoll” and “Free Abortions”).  The murdered parents had taken the girls to a 10 hour horrorcore concert in Michigan, where they met the killer and brought him back to Virginia.  The mother was a criminal justice professor at a small college and the father a part-time Presbyterian preacher.  Many internet sites, including Rod Dreher’s crunchy con blog, have been ablaze with indignation at the parents’ willingness to accompany their daughter to such an unseemly event.

Finally, here’s a story from Nashville, TN about a man “employed by Wynonna Judd to homeschool her two kids” who has been charged with several counts of child pornography distribution.  Judd fired him after he was arrested.

Being news items, these stories are of course sensationalistic and atypical, but they do remind us that homeschooling is a much more complicated and heterogeneous thing than many people realize.  A country music legend chooses homeschooling for her children.  A Gothardite becomes a Christ-hating murderer.  A homeschooling mother gets certified and teaches at the public high school where her daughters excel.  A couple of goth homeschoolers are murdered by their own rhetorical ideals.   Homeschooling is as varied and unpredictable as life itself.

At the end of his youth group’s outreach to Madison, this is what the Youth Pastor had to say.

“My favorite moments during Mad*Reach ‘09 were all the transformative changes and firsts that God did in our youth group: people who never evangelized started to evangelize, people who never prayed for strangers prayed for strangers and people who did not have much compassion for others were filled with compassion.

People who did not like praying started to pray…. People who never worshipped God with all their heart and strength were passionately praising the living God.

People who were scared to go out into Madison were filled with boldness and courageously stepped out in faith to serve Him. People fell to their knees during worship, people were hugged by siblings for the first time in a long time, … people learned how to hear God’s voice for the first time.

People learned about who God is and important aspects about God and His character. People experienced the Holy Spirit and God’s love for the first time, and told others about God for the first time.

As a youth pastor, seeing all these breakthroughs, transformations, and firsts is a miracle and a gift from God!

– Pastor John

An Illinois youth group came to Madison to learn about God and to help others. None of them expected that their lives would change, too. Here are some of their stories.

“I turned against God a few years ago because I was mad at Him. So even though I still went to church, I would just sit in the back and listen to music, with my hair like a blanket over my face.

I came on this missions trip thinking it would be a long and boring week. But it has all been worth it. I felt so very good helping out in Madison knowing that I had made a difference. I also thought of all the sad faces I’d seen in Madison and my heart just melted. I feel as if God brought me here for a purpose.

In the mornings, we would some spend time with God. And on Thursday, we had a time to worship God that was unlike anything I had experienced.

It was during those two times that I saw what my heart was like. God showed me the depths of my sin and I cried out to Him. I didn’t want to be a person like that any more. With all my heart I started to repent for turning on God long ago and thinking bad of Him. I felt like my heart ripped out of me and I decided to turn it over to God. Without God, I knew I would keep making a mess of my life.

I knew that I was changed and I smiled. I even prayed out loud and moved the hair which is usually always covering my face. I finally realized how much closer to God I am now. I will forever try my best to believe in and love God with all my heart!”

- Nate

*********************

“Our week-long mission trip was almost over. In the evening, we were in a class time together. We learned about God and His creation. It amazed me to realize how big God is. After the teaching ended, we were given time to reflect on what we learned. When I started thinking, a few tears rolled down my face but I could just wipe them away with my hand. Then I felt like a tornado was destroying my heart with all kinds of feelings: happy, sad, lost, alone.

I was thinking about my life and how I’ve been living it and what I’ve done. I said to myself, “I am done with this. I am tired of trying to do this by myself. I need God!”

I started to pour my heart out to God repenting and thanking Him and finally saying I was ready to come to Him because I knew that He was waiting for me.

I felt God’s presence in the room and I never want that feeling to go away.”

– Heather

***********************

After we ate dinner and had our 15 minute break, I was surprised that we were going to worship again. I wanted to play games and hang out like usual, but now I wouldn’t trade that evening for anything!

We started off singing the song “How Great is Our God.” The way I worshipped was just like any Sunday–you know, raising one hand and singing without much thought about what I was singing.

Afterwards we watched “How Great Is Our God” by Louie Giglio. I was shocked, stunned and out of breath when he showed the size of the biggest star that God had created.

When the clip ended we began to sing and pray. At first it was quiet, but then something started to tug on my heart. I prayed and prayed, then started to weep.

I didn’t know at first why I was crying, but when I started to reflect I realized that I had done nothing worthy of God’s love. Earlier in the week, I felt so proud of myself for praying for people on the streets, but now I realized my arrogance and pride. I felt so ashamed.

I felt like God was coming closer to me, asking for my heart to fully belong to Him. But I felt like I was unworthy. That I had done too many bad things in my life. I pictured what my heart must really look like — filled with dirt, refuse and everything disgusting. I asked God, “How can I give this to you? This is so unworthy of you!”

Yet God still wanted my heart.

“Why, God?” I asked.

“Because I love you.” It was like God said that to me with such a gentle whisper.

That night, I gave God my heart. And I cried for a long time, saying, “I love you, I love you.”

– Matthew

by “Angel”, from an Illinois youth group who joined us for a week-long mission trip to Madison called “Mad*Reach”

Our youth group’s van pulled into the parking lot and kids swarmed around us.

“Are you famous?” they asked. “Where are you from?”

Little girls I had never met before came up to me and gave me big hugs.

We were at Allied Drive in Madison, working with little kids from the neighborhood who came to a weekly Bible class after school. They learned more about God and played games together.

I was there to help teach the little kids, but I learned much more myself.  That Tuesday, my heart changed–and it all started with a TV.

We started our lesson with a movie about miracles of Jesus on their “new” TV. The kids and the staff had prayed for a TV that was bigger than the 9-inch one they had. As I looked at their bigger, new TV, I was amazed at how happy and grateful they were. It was chunky, old, still pretty small, and could definitely use an upgrade. I remembered our 50-inch flat screen HDTVs at home. We wanted it so desperately but it still didn’t seem like enough once we had it.

Later in the afternoon, we played games with the kids. They were laughing and jumping and happy, but I felt sad and disappointed. I realized that these kids — who I would have overlooked because they were in such a different neighborhood and culture than mine — each had their own story to tell.

And I saw that I was never happy with what I had, yet these children had so little and were still happy. I realized I need to thank God so much more for what He’s given me.

After that afternoon with the kids, I felt God tell me to reach out to others and help those who are less fortunate than I am.  Now I want to do more volunteering and I’m so excited.

Christ will win. A new heavens and a new earth is on its way. The resurrection of Jesus Christ has inaugurated a glorious rule and reign that will end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the judgment, the acquittal of the elect and Christ making all things new and then handing over the Kingdom to the Father that God may be “all in all.” That is not only the message of Scripture (see missions passages below) but the glorious teleological vision of redemptive history. It also is the mind expanding, soul stirring motivation for you to become involved in something greater than yourself.

Mark Baxter, one of the best servant-leaders I know in world missions, leader of the YWAM Reformed missions movement out of Jacksonville, Florida, outlines the present situation in missions, strategic changes that are needed to bring balance in missions, and other good thoughts at his YouTube video here.

As Mark says, “Today is a day of optimism…because of our sovereign God!” Mark’s optimism comes naturally because he is the son of The Reverend Robert “Pastor Bob” Baxter,  now Executive Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Dothan, Alabama and formerly my pastor at Olathe (now New Hope) Presbyterian Church in Olathe, Kansas. I know of no one more optimistic about mankind’s future than Pastor Bob, my pastor and my mentor, who lifted my head to see the undeniable Biblical vision of total universal victory in Jesus Christ. But Mark comes about it also supernaturally as I witnessed, first hand, how Mark’s own life was transformed by the mission vision of the Bible and how he gave his life to the work of the Lord in missions, along with his wife and family.

So I say, “Amen Mark!” And may the message and work of Mark Baxter and his wife and that good work coming out of Jacksonville bring many sons and daughters into the kingdom of God, and many into the work of reaching those who have never heard.

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2.14).

Some Missions Scriptures

May I suggest praying these passages back to God in your seasons of focused prayer for nations, for missionaries, for cities and for individuals who need the Lord. Please also remember to pray that prayer that we are to pray, for laboers to be raised up for the Lord’s harvest:

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9.36-38).

In this, we at RTS Charlotte join with Mark Baxter and his vision for missionaries to go where others have not gone.

Genesis 12:3
“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Exodus 19:5
“…Although the whole earth is mine”

Deuteronomy 28:9-10
9 “The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you.”

Joshua 4:23-24
23 “For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”

1 Samuel 17:46
“This day the LORD will hand you over to me…and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.”

2 Samuel 22:50
“Therefore I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to your name.”

II Kings 19:19
“Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”

1 Chronicles 16:23-24
23 “Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. 24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.”

2 Chronicles 6:33
“then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you…”

Nehemiah 9:6
“You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.”

Psalm 86:9
“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name.”

Isaiah 49:6
“… I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Jeremiah 3:17
17 “At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. ”

Ezekiel 36:23
“I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.”

Daniel 7:13-14
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him…”

Amos 9:11-12
11 “In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, 12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name,” declares the LORD, who will do these things.”

Nahum 1:5
“The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.”

Habakkuk 2:14
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

Zephaniah 3:8-9
8, 9 “…for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them—all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger. Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder.”

Haggai 2:7
“I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty. ”

Zechariah 14:9

“The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.”

Malachi 1:11

“My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.”

Matthew 28:19

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

Mark 13:10

“And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.”

John 3:16-17

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Acts 1:8

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Romans 15:12

“And again, Isaiah says, “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him.”

1 Corinthians 10:26

“…”The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

2 Corinthians 5:19

“that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ…”

Galatians 3:8

“The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”

Ephesians 1:10

“…to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.”

Philippians 2:10

“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth”

Colossians 1:6

“… All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing…”

1Thessalonians 1:8

“The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere…”

1 Timothy 3:16

“Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.”

2 Timothy 4:17

“But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it…”

Titus 2:11

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”

Hebrews 10:10

“… we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

James 1:18

“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”

1 Peter 3:18

“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…”

I John 4:14

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

Jude 1:25

“to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”

Revelation 5:9-10

9 “And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”